Logfile from Brass&Steel.


The Phone rings:

From afar, Harriet's voice on the other end sounds rather frazzled. "Hey,
Zach? Can I hide out at your place for a couple of hours? Please?" She
chuckles, but it's forced. "These gallery people are driving me up a wall,
and they know where I live!"

Long distance to Harriet: Zach chuckles and says warmly, "Sure. It's a
cross the road and on block up form Grenada Theatre. Close to Huron Park.
789 Minnesota on top of the newsstand. Come on right up."

From afar, Harriet sighs with relief. "Thanks. I thought I'd be safe in
Crown Center, but one of them tracked me down even there, you know? You're
a lifesaver!"

Long distance to Harriet: Zach laughs. "I'll have some nice lemonade ready
for you, dear. See you!"


Upstairs Flat -- 789 Minnesota -- Downtown -- KCK(#321Rhng)
	You see a tiny flat laid out before you. It's a cosy little place
painted in bright and lively colors; yellow and green being prominent. On
one wall hangs a tie-dye poster of Che Guevarra looking his usual heroic
self. Underneath the poster stands the combined bed and couch. It is far
from new, but covered in a bright red blanket. A small coffee table stands
in fromt of it. In the corner to the left of the couch rests a guitar
case, covered with stickers from all over the world. In the other corner
stands a big toolbox.
	Next to the window stands a small warderobe freshly painted like a
rainbow, and a fridge. To the right of the entrance a door leads into a
closet sized bathroom. Next to the bathroom there's a small nook with a 3'
working bench with a sink and cupboards above and below and a cooking
stove. The window has five pots of healthy-looking plantlife residing in
it.

There comes a knock on the door from outside the flat.

Zach opens the door wide and smiles to the world in general and Harriet in
particular. "Hey honey! Made it here okay? Come on in!"

Harriet is a woman in her early twenties. She's below average in height,
and thin and pale, as if she doesn't get out much. She has short-cropped,
unruly, dark brown hair, and green eyes. Her round, open face seems as if
it's used to doing a lot of smiling. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses
perch--slightly askew--on her nose.
 Harriet is wearing a fairly simple long-sleeved white shirt, dark blue
jeans, and a embroidered green vest, along with her habitual battered,
paint coated sneakers. Harriet is also wearing a large, thick denim
jacket, which has been patched, whether it needed it or not, with numerous
squares of rainbow and tye-dyed cloth.

Harriet grins back, a little shyly. "Thanks, I made it fine, you know?"
she says as she steps into the apartment. She hands Zach several CD jewel
cases. "Uh, I thought you might like these. You said you liked folk,
right? A starting band in my building has a really cool sound...sort of
folk and jazzy." She smiles, and repeats, "I thought you might like to
hear them."

Zach beams at her and takes the CDs. "Oh great! Thanks Harriet. I'm
looking forward to it! Make yourself at home - my casa es su casa and all
that."

<OOC> Zach says, "Make a Per roll at a bonus. :)"

AutoJudge:  Harriet rolls: 2 + 6 = 8 . Check die: 6

<OOC> Harriet says, "Unless it's a +3 bonus, I failed."

<OOC> Harriet says, "But it occurs to me that he might not have a CD
player. :)"

<OOC> Zach says, "It's a +4.:) You preceptivly percieve that this place
does indeed not have a CD player. :)"

Harriet laughs and gives Zach a quick hug, and then she looks around. She
oohs appreciatively at the wardrobe, but her face becomes puzzled, then
slightly dismayed. "You don't have a CD player? Oh, dear." She smiles at
him. "Well, you can always borrow mine, if you like. I hardly ever use it
these days, you know? And thanks a lot for the refuge. I'm about to
collapse."

Zach grins ruefully. "I have a CD player, but it's firmly embedded in my
car. In here there's only live music." He points to the guitar case and
walks over to the fridge, where he digs out a huge mug filled with pieces
of lemon and lime, and liquid. With the other hand he yanks out a bottle
of fizzy water, all of which he places on the table. "Here's the lemonade
I promised you. Home made!"

Harriet chuckles, and looks at the lemonade with a grin. "Looks great, you
know? What's the fizzy water for?" she asks as she takes a seat.

You say, "It's to put into the lemonade. It's been in the making for a
couple of days, so the liquid is pretty thick by now. I wouldn't recommend
drinking it undiluted. I have still water if you prefer that?""

Harriet shakes her head, looking intrigued. "No, fizzy sounds fun. I've
just never had it before, you know?"

Zach grins and gets glasses for them both. He pours Harriet's glass about
one quarter full, and adds water. "I hope I've added enough sugar to
this..." he hands her her glass. "Enjoy."

<OOC> Zach says, "The stuff is excellent. He's good at lemonades. :)"

Harriet takes a sip, perhaps a /little/ hesitantly, then her face lights
up as she tastes the sweet-tart flavor. She bounces enthusiastically.
"This is great, Zach! It's wonderful, you know?" She takes a large
swallow.

Zach chuckles and mixes himself a fizzy lemonade too. "Glad you like it.
It's made to bring fizz and freshness into your life."

Harriet laughs and drinks some more. "And boy, do I feel like I need it,
you know?" She shakes her head. "I stayed up far too late last night, and
had far too much to do today." She looks him over, smiling at the pants.
"Are you off today?"

Zach leans back on the sofa and makes a content sound. "Yep, for most of
the day I am. Now just lean back and relax. Are you hungry or anything?"

Harriet shakes her head, nursing her drink. "No, but thank you, you know?"
She looks around the apartment, still a little nervous at being in someone
else's 'territory', so to speak.

Zach smiles warmly and pulls up one of his legs and folds it underneath
him, shifting slightly to face Harriet. "Anytime you feel peckish, lemme
know. I'll whip ut a meal for ya in no time! Meanwhile - is there anything
I can do to help you relax? Some music perheps? A massage? More lemonade?"

Harriet smiles fondly at Zach, but shakes her head. "I'm fine, really. I
won't relax until the morning after the show, you know?" She sighs and
leans back. "And then, I'm going to take a small vacation. Nothing but
learning how to ice skate, and ju-jitsu until Christmas, at least."

Zach's face opens in a huge smile. "Ice skating and ju-jitsu? Oh hoopy!
Excellent! So are you gonna try that other dude's courses? Cosmo or
whatever?"

Harriet nods, then grins. "Yeah, he said he'd be my mentor, you know?
Isn't that cute?" She chuckles. "Don't tell him I used that word, though.
He'd probably be rather bewildered...he's a very serious sort of guy."

Zach chuckles and winks at her. "I'll do my best... So what happened? You
meet this guy and he offers to teach you martial arts right out of the
blue?"

Harriet drains the last of her glass, and sighs happily. "You make really
good lemonade, you know? And, kinda, yeah. Not exactly. He offered the
second time we met. I asked about his hobbies, and it turns out that it's
hobby, singular. So we talked about that, and he gave me the address to
the studio he practices at." She smiles. "He didn't mention the mentor
thing until last night, when we started talking...inevitably, these days
it seems, about philosophy." She nods. "He's a good guy, if a little scary
for an accountant."

Zach grins rougishly and leand over to pour more lemonade and water for
her. "Kaycee seems to be quite the philosophical hotbed, you know. And
you, your're the kind of sweet, gentle spirit that makes all philosophers
shine their shoes up and straighten their metaphorical ties."

Harriet beams her thanks at the refill. She looks a bit askance at Zach's
description, however. "I sound terribly dull, don't I?" She shakes her
head. "And I'd like the philosophy talk more if I didn't get the feeling
that everyone else is talking about something slightly different than what
I think we're talking about, you know?"

Zach smiles kindly and sips his own lemonade. "You're anything but dull,
Harriet. You're an incredibly talented artist. And as for the
philosophy... At it's heart it's really simple. It's about light and
darkness, good and bad, love and hate."

Harriet blushes at the compliment, but sobers up rather quickly as he
continues. She frowns and sighs. "Nothing is ever simple, in my
experience, you know? But, okay. Light and darkness, good and bad, love
and hate." She shakes her head. "But who decides which is which?"

You say, "Who do /you/ think decides. Or should decide?"

"I don't know," Harriet says, sounding frustrated. "I know what /I/
believe is right, is true, but I don't think I'm infallible enough to
impose that on other people, you know? And, off hand, I can't think of any
human being on the planet who's qualified to have that kind of power. But,
on the other hand, at some point don't you have to stop and say, /this/ is
Right, /this/ is Good?" She stares into the glass of lemonade, as if she
might find an answer there.

Zach smiles softly and shifts into a more comfy position on the coach.
"There are absolutes for stuff like Good and Evil and Right and Truth, but
the vast majority of us can only comprehend a small portion of these. It's
not easy at all, and for most of us it requires hard work and rather a lot
of faith, I guess."

"Faith..." Harriet murmurs, and smiles a little. "In college, I got into
the whole fluffy-bunny neopaganism thing, you know? 'Harm none' was a
standard for behavior that I could really get behind. I think that's the
closest I ever really got to faith, though...and even then, it wasn't
really the religious stuff, but the idea that people could legitimately
disagree without being wrong, and that the only sin lay in harming others,
you know?" She sighs. "I don't think I'm very good at faith. I've always
needed evidence...possibly left over from my banker genes."

You say, "But you have faith in that it's wrong to harm others? That
kindness towards other people is good?"

Harriet purses her lips. "Well, yes. But that's not faith, you know? It's
obvious! There's too much pain in the world just in living to go around
making it worse. Why would anyone even want to?"

Zach chuckles and bites his lip. Fine lines show up around his twinkling
eyes. "Oh, so it's obvious. But you don't /know/ it do you? It's
ultimately something you /belive/ - and that's faith right there." He
pauses a bit and does a mental double-take. "Or do you actually /know/?"

Harriet blinks at Zach. "That there's pain in living? Of course I know.
But...people are beautiful, you know? They're in pain, and they feel
alone, but each one is like a one of a kind masterpiece that no one will
/ever/ know the full beauty of...just the idea of hurting or destroying
any one of them. It's inconcievable to me, you know?" She shakes her head.
"I'm not explaining this very well."

Zach leans over and very, very gently moves one of her locks away from her
face with a finger, then withdraws his hand. His eyes are all warm and
intent. "Oh yes you are, Harriet. Better than you probably even realise.
It's like hearing my father speak, actually. And the full beauty of
everyone /is/ known by their Creator at the very least."

Harriet smiles, a little lopsidedly. "Was your father as big a sweetheart
as you are, you know?"

Zach chuckles. "Oh he's an even greater sweetheart than me. I'm just a
pale shadow compared to dad."

Harriet raises her eyebrows and grins. "I can scarcely imagine it."

You say, "Hey, I'll take him to see you if he should come passing through
here once."

Harriet chuckles. "I'd like that, you know? See where the wonder that is
Zachness originated, and such." She winks, and leans back, relaxing.
"You're a good friend."

<OOC> Harriet says, "Harriet meets Eli...good heavens. They'd get along,
at least. ;)"

Zach grins and relaxes. "I just strive to be the best me that I can. And
you're not very difficult to be friends with, hon."

<OOC> Zach says, "Match made in Heaven! :)"

Harriet chuckles. "So, we're both good people to be friends with. I'm glad
we agree, you know?" She winks. "So," she says, with a small smile, "what
do we talk about now? I'm afraid my conversational box is mostly filled
with stress and worry, so be a friend and come up with something fun?"

Zach laughs and sits up. "Look, you're an artist a few days away from a
showing. Let's forget about churning your brain with philosophy. How 'bout
you turn around and I give your shoulders some TLC? And I'm not gonna hit
on you."

Harriet smiles, nods, and obediently turns around. "I trust you," she says
with a chuckle, "and I rarely turn down a backrub from a friend."

From afar, Lucian takes this opportunity to waggle his finger at you for
luring an otherwise involved woman back to your apartment. ;)

Long distance to Lucian: Zach sniffs. "I'm only giving her a massage, you
know."

Lucian pages: Suuuuuuuuuure. :p

Zach shuffles closer and lays his warm, strong hands on her shoulders. He
gently squeezes and strokes a bit to find out how badly they need his
attention. "That's good."

Long distance to Lucian: Zach pouts. "It's True! And had you been a proper
snake, you'd have Known!" :)

Harriet sighs with pleasure and lets her head hang down. Her shoulders are
quite tense, from emotion and all the lifting she's been doing over the
last couple of days.

Lucian pages: I AM a proper Snake, and I know darn well what you had in
mind, you dirty-winged gigolo. ;p

Zach tends to tense and sore shoulders, neck and back with great skill and
care. If she allows (after a while), he'll have her lie down on ther
stomach to let him give her back a proper going-over. It's the usual mix
of pleasure and pain, that signifies a good quality massage.

You paged Lucian with 'You aren't and you don't!:) And they're not dirty,
they're gloriously and niftily black!'.

You paged Lucian with 'Besides, I only do Free Love.'.

You paged Lucian with 'No hidden catch, no strings attached. Just free
love..." :)'.

If Harriet were a cat, she'd be purring after about the first minute, and
with a rather drowsy smile, will let Zach put her into any position that
doesn't set off immediate alarm bells, with only a few wiggles and
snickers when he runs across one of her many ticklish spots.

<OOC> Harriet says, "Heh. I have to go, and Harriet is probably going to
fall asleep in rather short order. She's only had about three hours a
night for the past couple of nights."

Zach has clearly done this many times before. (Now there's a shocker..)
Whenever he finds a tickly spot, he notes it and makes sure to keep his
hands and fingers firm enought to avoid tickling the next time.

<OOC> Zach grins. She'll be well cared for.:)

<OOC> Zach will even turn her cellphone off if he can find it.

<OOC> Harriet says, "Harriet has no cel phone. She'd rather spend ten
minutes looking for a payphone than have someone call her when she's Busy.
I assume that eventually he will wake her up, and let her toddle off home?
:)"

From afar, Lucian chuckles. "One would argue that there are ALWAYS strings
attached, even if neither giver nor gifted expect them to be there, but
that's a philosophical debate best taken IC sometime. ;p"

Zach lets Harriet have a good, long rest. She'll awake underneath a
blanket, all nice and warm a cosy.

From afar, Goldie waves...

Zach will also make sure to FEED her, before driving her home!

<OOC> Zach is also a Jewish Mom sometimes. :)

Harriet eventually yawns, and wakes with a stretch. She looks very
confused for a moment, the kind of expression that you only get when you
wake up somewhere unfamiliar. After a moment, she smiles. "That was nice.
Thank you, Zach."

Long distance to Lucian: Zach nods:)

<OOC> Harriet says, "She'll be grateful for the food. Now I really must
go. *hugs*"

<OOC> Zach says, "Take care!"

Harriet goes home.